Columns

Some western leaders have been hyperventilating about Russia’s Zapad 2017 military exercises. These exercises have been going on for some time and some folks have worried about them. The exercises mean “West” and Russia has carried these out as a rehearsal for a defensive operation against an attack from the west.

Four family stories of endurance begin in the Ohio wilderness of 1798. A bone-chilling wind whipped through the forest, the howling harbinger of a driving snowstorm. John Hosbrook had run into a blizzard on his homeward hike from the fort where he had replenished his family’s salt supply. That family and a warm cabin awaited him—if only he could get there.

When liberals first pointed out that American racists were now known as “the alt right,” and calling themselves “white nationalists,” conservatives said, huh, what? We’ve never even heard of that, they claimed.
Well, after last week’s tragic events in Charlottesville, they know about it now, don’t they? Or will they continue to bury their heads in the sand, and act as though Donald Trump wasn’t largely elected by racists, the “angry whites” we’ve heard so much about.

North Korea has upped its level of threats against the United States. As of this writing, senior North Korean officials have threatened to simultaneously launch four ballistic missiles toward Guam sometime in the second half of this month. The missiles are to pass over Japan and land in the ocean near Guam.

Do you remember the Faberge commercial that showed a woman (Heather Locklear) who “told two friends” about a product, and they told two friends, and so on and so on? That commercial was introduced about 35 years ago if you can believe it. But the concept still applies today.

It’s mid-summer and there’s no end in sight for the travelers heading to Smith Mountain Lake. At the SML Visitor Center located at Bridgewater Plaza, our staff and volunteers have the unique opportunity to speak with everyone who enters our doors. A larger than usual number are first-time visitors and many have expressed their joy in discovering Smith Mountain Lake. In fact, they LOVE this region.

WILLIAMSBURG --- Your favorite liberal columnist is in this historic city for the Annual Virginia State Convention of the AFL-CIO. Here, we will endorse those we judge as the most “worker friendly” candidates for this fall’s General Assembly elections.
All 100 seats in the House of Delegates are up for election this year, and Virginia Democrats have seen a dramatic surge in nominated candidates, due to “resistance” reaction to the Trump debacle in Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump has signed a bill that codifies sanctions against Russia that Barack Obama had set by executive order. This means that they can only be repealed by Congressional action. President Trump had little choice but to sign the bill. It had passed by such huge margins that a presidential veto would have surely been overridden.

I don’t blame the Boy Scouts for President Donald Trump’s bizarre speech at the National Jamboree in West Virginia on Monday.
The U.S. president is, after all, the honorary president of the Scouts. If he wants to speak at the National Jamboree, it would be hard to say no.

It’s been common for quite some time now to hear many people dismiss Donald Trump and his bizarre antics by just saying, “Oh, he’s crazy.”
But now the idea has taken on more impetus after his recent persecutions of people who work for him, and his deeply weird, angry political speech before a crowd of Boy Scouts and their families.